Bad Writing? (was: JKR and the boys)

[justcarol67]

No: HPFGUIDX 162927

Bruce Alan Wilson wrote:
> > Anent Snape, I don't see that he's abusive.  Mean, yes.  Unfair,
yes.  But abusive?  No.   
> 
Bart responded:
> 	So, purposefully destroying a student's work to ensure that he
fails is NOT abusive?

Carol responds:
But Harry didn't fail. Snape knew perfectly well that a zero for a
single assignment wouldn't seriously affect Harry's end-of-year mark
or prevent him from being in Potions with the rest of his class the
next year. (BTW, there's no proof in the text that Snape destroyed
that vial. It could have slipped when Harry put it on the desk and
walked away. That sort of thing has happened to me more than
once--things I thought I placed securely slipping and falling to the
floor. And if Hermione hadn't Evanescoed his potion, he could have
turned in a new vial. Snape is just having a moment of petty vengeance
against Harry for ostensibly stealing his potion ingredients and lying
about it. There are no long-term consequences--and Snape, of course,
later learns that the thief wasn't Harry at all. Unfortunately, Harry
further violates his trust by entering his Pensieve memory, which IMO
undoes whatever fragile trust had been rebuilt when Snape realized he
was innocent of stealing the gillyweed and the polyjuice ingredients.)

Carol, not condoning pettiness in teachers but not considering it
"abuse," either